Keep Your Powder Dry

Firenze/Florence? Well known exile location or has the ECWtravelogue decided to embark upon the grand tour? And what exactly has the birthplace of the renaissance got to do with the Wars of the Three Kingdoms? In all fairness, your immediate reaction of 'well that's got nothing to do with the Wars of the Three Kingdoms' would be correct. What Firenze did have was a ridiculously wealthy Edwardian Anglo-Italian gentleman, called Frederick Stibbert. An English pot Museo Stibbert.  Stibbert's family was incredibly wealthy, his grandfather making a fortune from his role as General Commander of the East India Company, and governor of Bengal.  You can get very close to many of the exhibits, possibly too close; but this brilliant to be able to see details that we normally see through a glass display cabinet  Stibbert's father would be a colonel in the Coldstream Guards; and, through a series of deaths in the family, Frederick would inherit the entire vast fortune. On the hi...

 Amsterdam? English Civil War? Surely a questionable/tenuous link... or an excuse for a 'jolly'. Amsterdam, party capital of the low countries, is not too synonymous with the Civil Wars, standing in the shadows of Breda and The Hague. Detail from 'Militia Company...Bicker' Breda's claim is strong, where many adventuring young gentlemen learned soldiering before the outbreak of the Wars; The Hague, where so many Royalists exiled themselves during the Interregnum/Protectorate.  Amsterdam wasn't too popular with exiled Royalists; however, it did become home for many exiled republicans once the Restoration had returned the monarch to the throne. These exiled republicans would help build Amsterdam's wealth. What Amsterdam does have is a city landscape that very much entered its golden age during the mid seventeenth century. Amongst the pungent aroma of cafes, stroopwafels, extortionate chocolate shops, frites and ladies whose virtue can be easily bought, are a wh...

And now, to steal a phrase from Monty Python, for something completely different... Portrait of Henry, Duke of Gloucester at Royal Guild of Saint-Sebastian It is spring 1656, Charles II along with his brothers Henry, Duke of Gloucester and James, Duke of York arrive in Brugge. Charles had fled England in 1651 after his defeat at Worcester, he originally lived near Paris, then moved to Cologne, before ending up in Brugge. The time that Charles spent in Brugge recently hit the headlines when Belgian fishermen tested the right to fish in British waters post Brexit: Charles had granted 50 Flemish fishermen from Brugge “eternal rights” to English fishing waters, as a way of thanking the city for its hospitality. the time keeping apparatus on top of Huis Bouchoute Charles was originally housed in Huis Bouchoute , which is now more famous for its role in the standardisation of Belgian timekeeping. Grand Hotel Casselbergh is more widely known as Charles's residence whilst in Brugge. This u...